Amaila Falls Hydro…Brassington dodges queries of Fip Motilall’s gains

Aug 02, 2013 News

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The actual amount of money Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall walked away with from the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project, in particular the construction of the access road, remains unknown.

Also unclear is whether Government conducted due diligence on Motilall to ascertain if he was deserving of an interim licence for Guyana’s hydro-electric power development, a huge undertaking requiring massive investments.
Winston Brassington, Head of the Technical Team for the Project, who was Government’s representative at a public consultation held on Friday last at the International Conference Centre, dodged queries on both matters.
Synergy Holdings Inc was granted an interim licence on July 29, 2002, just over 11 years ago, for the development of a Hydro-electric power station and reservoir, and the construction of a transmission line to the coast to sell electricity.
In relation to the due diligence inquiry, Brassington said the issuance of the interim licence was done by the Office of the Prime Minister and he was not involved. He said Motilall approached Government to pursue the development and permission was granted.
Without saying whether or not Motilall was capable of undertaking the hydropower project, Brassington said he (Motilall) was able to attract an international firm with a lot of experience to do a feasibility study on the Amaila Falls Project. He added that developers in these ventures usually assume abundant risks and spend a lot of money.
Up until Motilall sold his interim licence, it was renewed several times. According to Brassington, progress was being made on the project and so it was only fitting that the licence be renewed.
He pointed out that the terms and conditions for Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) took years to be completed, and parties involved had to concur on certain aspects for the agreement to be worked out.

However, with all Motilall’s involvement and investment in the project, he sold his interim licence to Sithe Global Amaila Holdings Inc.
According to Brian Kubecki, President of Sithe Global Amaila Holdings Inc, his company bought the licence for US$12M from Motilall. The money will be transferred at the end of financial closure for the project, he added.
However, this was not the only aspect of the project Motilall was involved in. Incidentally, in March 2010, Motilall, sole financier of the feasibility study of the hydropower project, was awarded a US$15.4M contract to build the access road, with duration of eight months.
After several extensions, Government pulled the plug on the project in January 2012. Since, then the cost of the project has almost doubled and several contracts awarded to other contractors were terminated. It is unclear as to how much money Motilall earned from attempting to build the road.
However, his failure vindicated Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall who doubted Motilall’s capabilities from the inception.
A vocal Lall at the consultation said, “This project was prepared in secrecy and designed to rob us. Lall made mention on the Skeldon Plant “dem seh dem spend almost US$200M, we paying through our nose and it still not working. This project will cost five times or even more. Should we sit back and allow this again?”
He continued, “I have shown very clearly to this nation that ‘Fip’ didn’t have an office in Miami. He came here and worked out of a garage and was given a US$15.4M contract when the man didn’t even know to build a pavement…We even had to give him money to buy equipment”.
Lall also questioned the limited time span that was allotted for advertising for a project of this magnitude, especially when the contractors would have had to go and prospect in the “bush”.

“Ads were placed from December 15 to January 17, around Christmas… Now Mr. Chairman, let Mr. Brassington tell us which contractor can go into that bush and come up with a proper proposal in that short space of time,” Lall stressed.
Brassington said he was not too clear on the suggestions that the timeline for advertising the project was too short. He said the advertisement ran for about six weeks and attracted four bids.
“The access road was publicly advertised. We got four bids. Parties were allowed the opportunity to visit the site before they put in the bids. The bids were evaluated by a group out of Public Works… So it was a public bid, open to all… not done in secrecy. It was highlighted so that we can get as many people to come in. We were working then with a timeline. We wanted to see the project finished within eight months. We are couple years late (chuckles while talking). Everything that we did was in good faith and was done openly,” he said.

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